The Chelios Conspiracy Theory

We all got a big laugh about a week ago when during the festivities for the opening of the NHL regular season in North America, Joe Elliot, the lead singer for the classic rock dinosaur Def Leppard, took hold of the Stanley Cup and proceeded to place it on a pedestal upside down:

While it was happening, I'm sure more than a few folks thought that Elliot couldn't be that stupid. And, as it turns out, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios is one of those people. Here's what he said on WCSX-FM in Detroit on the JJ&Lynne program, which we picked up via the Detroit Free Press:

"Someone should have drove that guy, he did that on purpose," Cheli said Wednesday. J.J.: "You think he did it on purpose?"

"No, we know he did ... we talked to people at the show and the guy was being real rude to everybody," Chelios said. "He was in a bad mood when they got there, so for whatever reason he didn't want to be there. And that's his way of showing it and taking it out on the NHL. ...

"Darren McCarty didn't really get a chance to see it, I guess he was going off the stage when it happened. And you know, (Kyle) Quincey was the only one that said he would have done something to him."

Lynne: "Do you think Quincey would have really popped him?"

"No I don't know if he would have popped him, but he could have gave him a good shove," Cheli said.

I'm sure the folks at Versus would have been thrilled had that went down. These days, the league needs all the pub it can get.